Hurricane a winner for Aggies, Hurricanes losers in college football

When looking in this direction, most college football fans around the country in past years couldn’t see past Texas-OU, or, as the colleges editor here calls it, OU-Texas, on this weekend.

But there is a new game in town.

Or at least in the region.

No. 13 Oklahoma vs. No. 15 Texas at Dallas on Saturday is not the only game involving Top 25 teams in the Southwest. No. 22 Texas A&M meets No. 23 Louisiana Tech at Shreveport.

It’s a much better game than anticipated when the season opened, which is when the two teams were supposed to meet. The game was postponed because of Hurricane Isaac. Now two teams that weren’t ranked when the season began are playing in a game that will receive national attention.

The postponement worked in Texas A&M’s favor. I’m not sure the Aggies would have been emotionally prepared for Louisiana Tech when the season began, despite coach Kevin Sumlin’s warnings, but the Bulldogs should have their attention now.

Houston coach Tony Levine watched his team lose to Louisiana Tech, 56-49, and now calls the Bulldogs “one of the best offenses, if not the best, in the country.”

I’m also not sure the Aggies would have been physically prepared. Freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel would have been playing his first college game. Now he’s got experience, although he played more like a freshman in a close win over Mississippi on Saturday than he has since the opening loss to Florida.

I like Texas A&M in this game but not in a blowout.

Winner: Oklahoma. Not only did the Sooners get their act together against Texas Tech, they now must be watering at the mouth to get to play against a disappointing Texas defense. About the best thing you can say about the Longhorns is that they allowed West Virginia 22 fewer points than Baylor did. Why is safety Kenny Vaccaro the only one who wears orange and white, as a player or a fan, who has called out the defense? He told our Mike Finger said he is tired of sounding like a broken record.

Winner: Will Muschamp. He will be the first to admit that he didn’t do the best job of his career in his last season as the Longhorns’ defensive coordinator in 2010. But his successor, Manny Diaz, hasn’t done any better. And Muschamp appears to have put the Florida Gators on the right track as the head coach. The Gators are No. 4 after beating LSU, at the same time improving the national reputation of the Aggies, who lost by only three to them.

Loser: Big Ten. For the the first time, the conference doesn’t have a team in the top 25 of the coaches’ poll. Ohio State is No. 8 in the Associated Press poll but can’t be ranked by the coaches because the Buckeyes are on probation and bowl ineligible.

Loser Addendum: Ohio State. The Buckeyes’ third-team quarterback twittered on Friday, “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL classes are pointless.” First, he should be flunked in English. Second, the university should have responded that he was wrong about the academic opportunities for its “student-athletes.” Instead, OSU said it advises its players not to embarrass themselves or anyone else on social media.

Winner: Geno Smith. The West Virginia quarterback should have tightened his grip on the Heisman Trophy with four touchdown passes in a 48-45 victory over Texas. He might, however, face a challenge from NBC, which suddenly is hyping Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o as a Heisman candidate. Guess which network televises Notre Dame games.

Loser: Miami. I still haven’t lifted my ban on Hurricanes players introducing themselves as coming from “The U,” especially after Miami didn’t show up for a 41-3 loss to Notre Dame. The Irish, ranked No. 7, are good but not that good. We’ll find out what they really have in road games at Oklahoma and USC–the one in Southern California not South Carolina. Now not that we mention it, wouldn’t it be fun to see the No. 3 USC Gamecocks in a bowl game against the No. 11 USC Trojans?

Winner: Charles Sims. The University of Houston running back has put the Cougars on his back and is carrying them to respectability. He gained 210 yards on Saturday against North Texas and has 368 yards and four touchdowns rushing in the last two games.

Loser: Gene Chizik. Another former Longhorns defensive coordinator and now the head coach at Auburn, he apologized to Tigers fans after an embarrassing loss against ridiculously bad Arkansas. “…they did not deserve this today,” he said.

Potential winner: TCU. The Horned Frogs can send a message by suspending quarterback Casey Pachall for more than one game, which they lost on Saturday to Iowa State. After earlier admitting to police that he failed a drug test for marijuana, he was arrested last week for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. TCU coach Gary Patterson met with university administrators Sunday to discuss further discipline but didn’t announce if a decision had been reached.

I don’t see how the hurricane helped A&M. The game was already going to be televised, and if they would have played the game, then A&M might be undefeated right now. To me it was not a good deal for A&M.

only thing i disagree with is manziel wouldn’t have had any experience under his best, and sumlin feared aggies might not be taking la. tech seriously enough. that won’t happen now. we’ll see. very interesting game.

The hurricane postponement probably hurt A&M.
That first real game road experience and probable win over La Tech just mighta gave the Aggies and their redshirt frosh QB enough to beat Florida at home like they shoulda.
As far as Sumlin fearing the Aggies not taking ANYBODY seriously enough shows a flaw in his coaching ….. as evidenced in their Ole Miss game.
A&M’s road game with Ole Miss shoulda been a walk in the park for the Aggies and it was a struggle to beat a half as good Rebel team.
A coach is supposed to make sure his team takes EVERY game seriously because your biggest game is always your next game.

the main downsides to the postponement was 1) now having to play 12 games in less than 12 weeks (the last game is on Thanksgiving) and 2) perhaps having that game under their belt, win or lose, would have lead to a win over florida assuming manziel still “figured it out” after game 1 like he has. no one will ever know, but this game is definitely more exciting than it was 6 weeks ago!

A&M vs. LaTech :
“Now two teams that weren’t ranked when the season began are playing in a game that will receive national attention.”
Yeah, and the game is still being carried, as originally scheduled, on ESPNU, so almost nobody can see it. So much for the attention. Nice scheduling, TV gurus.

My guess is many fans still haven’t heard of or about Charles Sims. This guy is the real deal – so much so that Coach Levine took the unheard of step of firing his offensive coordinator for not putting the ball in Sims’ hands. Had he had the ball, Sims would have run over, around and through Texas State. I’ve watched UH football since the 60′s. Sims is a throwback to those veer running backs Bill Yeoman turned out year after year. After year. Good size and incredible speed. Honestly, he reminds me of Robert Newhouse in his running style. You can see the frustration in the defensive players as they zero in on him and end up grabbing air. He makes defenders just look bad. It will be fun to watch him, especially as Piland gains more and more success with the passing game and his fast developing receiving corps.